Julie Arnold

Julie Arnold

Owner Art Director / Photographer

About

Hi there! I am THE be-all, end-all, jack-of-all-trades; I have 30+ years’ combined experience in photography, graphic design & videography. I absolutely love sharing moments, inspiring reactions & creating long-lasting memories in everything that I do, whether it be via photographs, capturing the essence of your style or your brand, or recording that special day that you will love to revisit over and over. That’s why I named our company Lovenote Creative! Think of every interaction with us as a note with love from us to you!

Julie’s style: Clean, traditional, documentary, sincere, fun.

Photography

I started my photographic journey at the age of 12 when I my mom bought me my first Kodak Tele Disc camera (“ooh it has a telephoto feature!”) for The Monkees concert at the WI state fair. I soon moved up to a Yashica Samurai X3.0 half-frame camera (which everyone thought was a video camera lol), and finally a Pentax K-1000. I took photography classes all throughout 8–12th grades and started taking portraits at Sears Portrait Studio while I was a junior in high school. I then worked for JCPenney Portrait Studio after high school, and after taking a couple years off of photography, I started a new chapter with Olan Mills in 1995. While I was a studio co-manager, I scored in the high 90th percentile in all of my photography evaluations and quickly became a Certified Professional Photographer. I wasn’t even at the job a year before I became a District Photography Trainer and traveled throughout our district to train new photographers. I really enjoyed my 2½ years there and consider the experience to be invaluable to my career. After relocating to Chicagoland, I bounced around during Christmas seasons between Expressly Portraits (now The Picture People), CP Studios (a small, local chain that didn’t last long) and ended up back at JCPenney Portraits in 1998, where I also became a Certified Professional Photographer. It was a perfect full-time job for me while I went to college, as they were able to work around my heavy class load.

I received my Associates degree in Graphic Design soon after 9/11, and started working in the publishing field, designing catalogs for a small wholesale company, where I was also able to do product photography for our catalogs. Hooray! I then earned my Bachelor of Fine Arts in Graphic Design & Multimedia in 2003 and have enjoyed a long career in print design, specializing in catalogs, magazines & advertisements in the Milwaukee area. Although I wasn’t doing it professionally any longer, I still enjoyed photographing my travels to amusement parks around the country (I’ve visited over 80 different parks!), and built a popular roller coaster pictures website in the late 90s.

In 2013, I purchased my first DSLR after just having point & shoot cameras for years and fell back in love with photography & decided to open my own business. I opened my 3rd, and hopefully permanent location in May of 2016, in a building that was built in the 1880s that features beautiful Cream City Brick walls and hardwood floors. Since I offer so many different things, I’ve become the ultimate jack-of-all-trades, and photograph families, weddings, children, events, and more! On a side note, I’ve also been recently promoted to a Director in our local Chamber of Commerce and love to help other businesses succeed in our growing community. It’s been a long journey and I’m sure glad I’m here now! 🙂

Graphic Design

As a graphic designer, I’ve earned both my Bachelor’s of Fine Arts degree & Associates in Applied Science degree in Graphic & Multimedia Design. Over the past 15+ years, I’ve had the privilege of designing for major corporations and brands such as:

Some other fun pictures of me:

Me in 1996 with my Pentax K1000 film camera.

Milwaukee Tool

Kohl’s Department Stores

Summerfest

Core Creative

Reader’s Digest

City of South Milwaukee

Northwestern Mutual

Michaels Craft Stores

Jo-Ann Fabrics

Hosley International

Sanita Shoes

Milwaukee Interactive Marketing Association

Irvine Ondrey Engineering

Harley-Davidson

Case IH

Quad/Graphics Creative Solutions

Taste of Home

Dohmen Life Science Services

USABlueBook

Kenosha News

Wassup! LOCAL Magazine

Milwaukee Direct Marketing

School Specialties

Guinness Atkinson

Videography

I have also been a budding videographer since my dad brought home his first video camera in 1981; back when the VHS recorder was housed in a separate carrying case that you had to sling across your shoulder! It’s an ingrained passion of mine and I adore working with the medium. I recently produced several interview-type political videos and can’t wait to expand my portfolio in the near future. In 2000, I shot and edited a personal 45-minute video of my amusement park travels, entitled Coastered 2000, which I still consider to be my pride & joy.

The possibilities of merging photography, graphic design and videography into Lovenote Creative are truly limitless! Let us help you tell your story!

We did a family shoot with Julie, and the entire experience was so enjoyable! With 3 girls ages 10, 9, and 9 months I was expecting it to be a nightmare between the pre-teen hormones and a baby. But she made it so fun for the girls, and was so patient with the baby! It went by in a flash. I’ve been a bit insecure of my post-baby body, but she knew exactly how to get my best angles in without even knowing I was. She also was able to make sure we all looked so natural and got genuine smiles out of all 5 of us! This was my first ‘family’ shoot, and I’ll admit… I was worried we’d look like a bunch of posed goons from Sears Photo but I’ve seen the proofs and I can tell you it’s going to be a hard choice in ordering all our favorites. Thank you thank you thank you!

Laura JelinekTickled Pink Photography Client

My family and I were extremely impressed with Julie for my son’s First Birthday photo session! She put everyone at ease and took control and somehow kept my son, Maverick’s, attention for nearly two hours! I was left with so many amazing photos to choose from that it was nearly an impossible task to narrow them down. She created a priceless memory for my family as we just had such an amazing time, first with proper ‘little man’ photos followed by his first taste of a birthday cake. It was wonderful! Afterwards, I talked non-stop about our photo session and recommended Julie to everyone I knew. I know I’ll be a repeat customer and will continually recommend Lovenote Photos!